On August 5, 2010 Acquia released Drupal Commons. So far, the reviews appear mixed. The product appears to be targeted to the business enterprise. Moreover, out-of-the-gate it appears to have some significant limitations, making it for now a niche community building application. My guess is that Buddypress, based on the WordPress platform, still…[Read more]

I think the open source movement is largely based on the assumption that there is a free lunch. Most developers to core open source code don’t expect to be paid for their work and most users of open source code don’t expect to pay for use of the code itself. To the extent that useful […]

When the cost of sophisticated Buddypress themes is factored in, the cost of commercial community building websites seems much more competitive or even a bargain. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other reasons to use the WordPress/Buddypress platform. But cost–as in “free” or even “low cost”–may not currently be sound grounds for a choice. Of course, […]

It’s sometimes hard for me to keep track of all the various definitions of open and free. My impression from what you’ve said is that Drupal Commons is open and free to the same degree as Buddypress. It just has additional commercial options.

ExpressionEngine Links: Home Page: http://expressionengine.com/ ExpressionEngine Pros: Classy design; appears to be feature rich Integrated platform built with many modules Includes a Wiki Impressive Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley client list Claims to be built on open source software, including CodeIgniter, an open source PHP framework…[Read more]

An annoying little quirk in Buddypress: since setting up my group (Buddypress vs. Drupal Commons…) several days ago, I have repeatedly tried to upload an image as my Group avatar. Each time I do so I get the following message: “Oops! This link appears to be broken.” The files I have tried to upload have been formatted as either a jpg or gif.

You apparently misread the review. By weak support, I meant that Tiki Wiki did not have the same quality of support as WordPress and Buddypress. I thought that was clear from the context (and, by the way, I’m a great fan of @LisaSabinWilson‘s books, which is why I mentioned their titles). In any case, I welcome […]

@boonebgorges Boone, it’s great to hear that you’ve joined the Buddypress support team. CUNY is my favorite demo of Buddypress. I hope you’ll continue your work integrating MediaWiki with Buddypress. I also hope you’ll carefully study the new Drupal Commons, as well as Telligent community building tools, to get ideas for how Buddypress can be…[Read more]

In late May, I attended Gov 2.0 Expo and saw Acquia promoting its Drupal Commons. Drupal Commons is an integration of “groups, discussion forums, blogs, wikis, documents, and events into a single packaged solution.” Sounds a lot like what Buddypress is trying to do.

@johnjamesjacoby i hope you will make Buddypress integration with MediaWiki (as done by CUNY) a high priority.

And, as you are undoubtedly aware, updating the default Buddypress theme to be on a par with the new WordPress 2010 default theme would, by setting the bar higher, greatly improve the overall quality of Buddypress themes (which, in my…[Read more]

If BuddyPress core needs anything to make integrating MediaWiki any easier, we’re more than happy to do what it takes to help. Otherwise it probably isn’t something that will be included in the core, because I would gamble that not every social network needs a wiki.